Oh, my! Brit! I have just spent a half-hour reading your delightful stories about Fritz! What a charming stork ( and how nasty those people that injured him!). Thank you so much for posting that link. Is Fritz still alive (I hope) ?

Thank you, bociany, for your nice words. Fritz really was just a character! Unfortunately he was killed running behind a tractor on a neighboring field, collecting worms. The driver of the tractor didn´t recognize Fritz was behind and drove backwards .... September 30 2006

Brit wrote:Thank you, bociany, for your nice words. Fritz really was just a character! Unfortunately he was killed running behind a tractor on a neighboring field, collecting worms. The driver of the tractor didn´t recognize Fritz was behind and drove backwards .... September 30 2006

Argh!
Somehow it is terrible when people are bad -- why, why did someone shoot at Fritz but it always makes me so sad when bad things happen by mistake.

bociany wrote:Brit, thanks for that link - the video is excellent. I'd like to learn more about the group that made it - Bird Life International. Migration is a dangerous business for birds these days.

It just occured to me I think the Bird Life International logo is a logo that appears on the site with the Dutch cams some of us watched last year.http://www.beleefdelente.nl/ -- I think it is the same logo -- but none of the cams are up yet so it is not very fun to visit.

A slightly more optimistic story.
It really says nothing, but issuing a little press release about migratory birds in Jordan and other countries -- just at the time we might have lost a stork in the region seems a good thing -- I mean I think if people do not hear of the concern they are less likely to think of it.
The press release says hunters are the number one danger the birds face traveling through Jordan and it mentions the other dangers.http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/ ... 52135.html

Article about Tõnn and his companion GPS carriers in EPL - Eesti Päevaleht by Ulvar Käärt, http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/583701Eesti Päevaleht September 17th, 2010http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/583701
Author: Ulvar KäärtPaths of storks and eagles keep scientists guessing
By observing Tõnn many until now unknown facts have been revealed.

Figure text:
Locations as of September 14
Storks gone …
Autumn migration
First to leave of the ten birds with GPS transmitters was black stork Leida who said goodbye to the Soomaa National Park already on June 27th.
Osprey Erika has made the longest journey and now rests her wings for some time in the Nile delta near Cairo before continuing to her destination in Soudan.
But greater spotted eagle Iti is still in her nesting area in Läänemaa, evidently teaching her offspring to catch prey.

Greater spotted eagle Tõnn has turned out to be the main source of new discoveries among the black storks and eagles that have been fitted out with transmitters to answer the questions about their migration paths.

Last year the young bird surprised the investigators by going on to adventure in Finland after arriving in Estonia from Spain in spring. This spring however Tõnn rushed on from Finland headlong to Sweden, and even made a little detour to Norway. That young GSEs may travel so widely in search for a breeding area for themselves has not been shown until now.

Now during the autumn migration period Tõnn has caused excitement once more among bird-watchers both in and outside Estonia. Last year he returned from Finland to Estonia already in the beginning of August, but this year our bird, who has been fairly stationary in Central Sweden, still hasn’t taken to the migration path. "Our German colleagues are already losing patience and check constantly to see when he will start moving at last“, notes Urmas Sellis, who keeps a watchful eye on the movements of our winged friends.

Urmas Sellis believs that Tõnn hasn’t felt the travelling itch yet because evidently breeding instincts have been wakening in the three year-old bird - in human terms, in his late teens. „I don’t believe that he has found a mate there already, but despite that some kind of instict keeps him stationary“, Urmas Sellis explained and added that mature greater spotted eagles always leave later than the others.

Keeps investigators guessing
Apart from the fact that Tõnn hasn’t seriously embarked on his southwards journey yet, he also keeps the scientists in suspense about which way he might choose this time. Will he fly from Sweden in a long loop around the Gulf of Bothnia to Finland and from there to Estonia and then on to Spain for wintering or will he go straight southwards across the Danish straits - nobody knows precisely as yet.
On Wednesday the location data from the transmitter on Tõnn’s back showed that he had made a one hundred kilometres long journey southwards, but whether this is the beginning of migration or just a warming-up exercise nobody dares say for certain.
Beside Tõnn osprey Erika, nesting in East Virumaa, on the border of the Puhatu bog area, has also offered surprises. In earlier observation years she has whiled away some time before migration with touring the North Estonian coast and Russia’s St. Petersburg area after her nesting period, but this time she seemed to be in a real hurry to set off.

Some still in Estonia, others have already arrivedl
•• The first to leave on the road southwards was black stork Leida, nesting in Soomaa Naitonal Park. She left already on June 27th and is now in eastern Roumania, in the Donau delta meadows. Black stork Priidu should be in the same area.
•• The last of the black storks, Valdur, left, on August 27.
•• Black storks Oss and Raivo have already been at the Israeli fish ponds for some time. They wintered there last year too.
•• Greater spoted eagle Iti has however not even moved from her nesting area, because she still must feed her offspring, and teach it how to hunt on its own. And like Iti, Tõnn, who seems to have moved house to the Östersund area in Sweden, hasn’t started his migration yet. Of all eagle species in Europe, GSEs are the most threatened and least known.
•• No one has managed to observe a GSE for as long as our eaglemen have followed Tõnn. True, GSEs have been marked earlier, but the young birds have perished on their first autumn or spring migration. Tõnn has already supplied his investigators with information for three years.

Brit wrote:There is a nice video from the NABU about how a white stork was equipped with a satellite transmitter. Unfortunately only in German language, but maybe from th pictures you can understand the story:

Thank you, Brit! Really very interesting!
Didn't understand a word , but still knowing much more now.